


Friend of a Lifetime

by TheLoneSurvivor



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Character Death, Darkspawn, F/M, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 02:26:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5726338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLoneSurvivor/pseuds/TheLoneSurvivor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tamlen is the first to wake up after touching the mirror, and it isn’t long at all before he realizes something wrong. What he does after proves that his friendship, and love, would last a lifetime… literally.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friend of a Lifetime

**Author's Note:**

> So, while sitting in darkness in the cave known as my room, the idea for this came to me and I decided to write it down because why not? Tamlen was my favourite character origin companion (besides Gorim of course <3 ). Hope you all enjoy.

The air was stiff and dead in the cave when Tamlen awoke. He sat upright and rubbed his head in agony. What had happened? Oh right, the mirror… He cursed himself for his stupidity and unwillingness to listen to Jay who was correct, as usual. Thinking about her prompted him to look around the room, only glancing at the shattered Eluvian mirror that was in the center of the room. No signs of Jay were present. He frowned, had Jay woken up before him and left without doing anything for him? _No, she wouldn’t do that… she couldn’t…_

The air had a definitive feeling to it that made the place all the worse. No longer was the air just dead and unmoving, but now it also reeked of death itself. Something foul had transpired since he touched the mirror but he wasn’t willing to sit and find what it was. After a small amount of stretching and drinking a small part of a potion from the leather pouch along the left side of his fur belt to rid himself of his headache, he picked himself up and scanned the room with height to aid him in his search for Jaylen.

She lay much closer to the door than he, most likely due to her being closest to the door when the mirror shattered into huge fragments. Tamlen couldn’t help but let loose a small grin, along with the thought _“Even when she’s laying on the ground in a heap, she still does it with grace.”_ He dismissed the thought quickly though and sat her upright against the right side of the wall. He unsheathed his blade when he found it lying close to where Jay had landed and slowly opened the door to see if anything was beyond the door.

Sure enough, something else was on the door and it wasn’t at all what Tamlen had suspected. It was a dwarvish looking creature, with jagged teeth, greened skin, monstrous yellow eyes and armour that was the crudest thing he had ever seen. Even shemlens had better looking armour than the creature in front of him did. The creature looked just as startled as Tamlen himself as they locked eyes with one another.

The creature tried to yell out to the others, but just as it threw its head back to let out a cry for help, Tamlen’s dagger found its way into the monster’s throat, tearing it’s vocal cords and blood vessels and snapping bone in half under the force of the attack, spurred on by desperation and surprise. The creature’s hands flew to its throat in a desperate and poor attempt to hold the blood back but to no avail in the slightest; it fell moments later, slower than normal as Tamlen helped it to the floor to avoid detection through a very unneeded clang against the stones.

Tamlen scanned the two hallways that went different ways from one another and remembered that there had been a lot more enemies they way they had come which was now the left tunnel. He scanned the right tunnel and found no one within any close proximity; there wasn’t even anyone within tunnel unlike the other side which had two more monsters down at the other end of the long tunnel.

Tamlen made his way back into the mirror room and hefted up the lithe Jay and slung her over his shoulder with a small amount of effort. Thankfully, she was thinner than most other women in camp. Not by a completely noticeable way, but enough to see that she was very fit and had a very small amount of fat on her body. Making his way down the right hallway as silently as he could, dagger drawn and woman slung over his shoulder, he was prepared for the worst; more combat. He had an idea to throw Jay to the floor in times of need but he really hoped it didn’t have to come to that as an angry Jaylen was one of the worst enemies a man could encounter, Tamlen know, shuddering from those sparse memories.

He encountered another rotten wood door and set down Jay by the door a little way left so she wouldn’t have to feel the impact of the door. Tamlen opened it cautiously and found three enemies in the room. They were all facing the other way, clearly not prepared for someone to be in the other side of the ruins. Tamlen slowly closed the door to not draw attention and went back to the mirror room to gather his bow and quiver. He would only have the time for one shot, as he had a longbow, powerful but difficult to pull back. Jay was still where she had been left, unconscious, drool slightly pooling onto her thigh. Tamlen tipped her head up to stop the drool from getting any larger than it already had.

He opened the door slowly to avoid sound. None of the monsters in the room were looking in the direction of the door, thankfully, and Tamlen notched an arrow into his bow and aimed at the monster who had a helmet on which had a bow of his own which might spell the end of him if he wasn’t careful. The arrow flew moments later, hitting his target dead on. Not even a small cry erupted from the monster as the arrow pierced his skull and punctured his brain, killing him instantly. The other creatures looked to find what had happened but Tamlen was already within arm’s length of them, daggers in hand.

Tamlen stabbed the daggers into the two abominations - the non-mage kind - and fell over with them, sending a loud clang echoing through the halls. Tamlen cursed again, louder this time around as there was no way that any more creatures in the ruins didn’t hear that. He pulled his daggers out as soon as he could and tugged the arrow out of the third monster. Footsteps could be heard from the tunnel where Jay was and he ran and quickly grabbed his friend, seeing the two monsters running towards him, just climbing over the large crater that looked like a massive creature took a huge chunk out of the ruin. Tamlen threw his friend over his shoulder and ran towards the door on the other side of the large cubic room he had just been in. It opened loudly, alerting more to his presence without a doubt, and he ran through it before slamming it back into place, setting the lock down although it would do little to stem the tide of enemies on the other side of the door.

One more creature was in the room, waiting for him as he had his bow trained on the spot where Tamlen would have been if he had taken a few steps forward. The arrow whizzed past him by about a meter in distance and it shattered as it struck the stone wall sending metal shards and worn wood all over the place in small fragments. Tamlen set down Jay once more and pulled his own bow out, making sure it was fully loaded and ready to be fired as soon as he turned the corner before he showed himself.

The monster had another arrow ready, however and when he released it, it struck Tamlen’s bow, sending a massive shockwave through the weapon as Tamlen, surprised by where the arrow hit, released the arrow. It overshot by about two and a half meters but didn’t fail on it’s goal of taking down a monster, as another one had rounded the corner on the other side and it struck it in the chest sending it falling to the floor with a pool of black, tainted blood forming a puddle around him.

Tamlen tugged the arrow out of his bow and decided to use it instead of his own to conserve his ammunition. The arrow was weightier than what he was used to but he knew it would have a lot more power behind it since he was using a longbow rather than the shortbow his opponent wielded. He let the arrow fly as soon as he could and the arrow hit the monster in the main entrance to the cave, the extra weight of the shot sending the arrow straight through the monster and his armour, hitting the stones a few meters behind him.

Tamlen slung his bow over his shoulder and quickly grabbed Jay once more, holding her with two hands to prevent her from falling as he ran. The door behind him burst open, after several swings of an axe. Tamlen didn’t wait to see the tainted men on the other side and bolted off for the direction of the cave exit. The light was refreshing to see rather than the dull light that came from small holes in the ceiling.

He made it outside and couldn’t help but sigh in relief before shaking the peaceful thoughts from his head; there was a lot more enemies in need of being killed after all. After setting Jay down so that she was sitting up on a nearby rock, he unslung his bow and notched another arrow into the nook and trained the arrow at the small opening that lead outside. Sure enough, another horror showed itself for only a moment before it tumbled to the ground as an arrow slid through its ribcage and protruded from the other side of the being.

A second one was also able to greet an arrow from Tamlen as he fired continuous arrows into the group in front of him. Finally, some got close enough that he had attack with his daggers. Some proved more of a problem than others but all were dispatched sooner or later. One of horrors, though, had been notching an arrow of its own and emerged from cover and fired his shot. The arrow didn’t kill Tamlen, but instead went through his shin, fracturing bone and ripping tissue and muscle alike. Tamlen gasped in pain and grabbed his own bow and proved himself the faster archer of them as his arrow sailed and hit the monster in the head, sending copious amounts of blood splattering against the rock on the ground.

One thing Tamlen hadn’t counted on was more of the abominations being outside the cave. One managed to sneak up on him and stab his dagger into Tamlen’s back. Tamlen almost screamed in pain, but somehow managed to hold it back. He grabbed one of his own daggers and stabbed it into the horror’s eye socket, twisting the blade to milk as much pain out of the monster as he could. It shrieked and screamed the entire time but the sound was unheard by Tamlen before he finally put the thing out of its misery, thrusting his blade forward into the thing’s brain to end its pain and suffering quickly.

No more of the hideous creatures were around, so Tamlen let his guard down after a minute of listening and observing. He went to his back and grabbed the dagger with slippery, blood soaked hands and tugged on the dagger. A pain that he couldn’t even describe filled his chest and he released the blade before trying once more after he felt it cut open more of his insides. Getting a solid grasp on the dagger, he pulled it out in one deft pull, prompting a cry of pain to rise from his throat as the crude weapon was dislodged from his insides.

Next he worked on the arrow, which fortunately hadn’t gone entirely through his leg. He felt that the arrows weren’t barbed which was a relief as the last thing he wanted to do was push the arrow through his leg entirely. He tugged hard on the arrow as well and grunted in pain and breathed in sharply from the nearly overwhelming pain wracking his entire leg.

He looked over and still saw Jay propped up against the same wall he had set her against. Her breathing looked normal and as if she were just dreaming peacefully. He would have loved to take her back to camp but that was several miles away and with what little time he knew he had left he couldn’t make it. Hell, even as he thought about it, his power waned from his body as if he had dived into a pool of icy water.

He limped his way over to Jaylen and smiled sadly at her. He brushed his cleaner hand from where her cheek was down to her chin, feeling tears start to come to his eyes. _I only wish I had the chance to say I loved her…_

He grabbed a part of his lower pants and ripped of an adequate amount and reached into his pouch, producing a small wooden bowl, a smoothened stick and some elfroot. He put the elfroot into the small wooden bowl and began pounding it with the stick to ground it into a fine paste. He then dipped the bowl into some water from a nearby muddy puddle and mixed it until he was satisfied with the texture. He took the chunk of fabric he had ripped off and then wrote three words on it with as neat of shemlen writing as he could gather. “keep her safe” it read, a simple note to keep his friend and the person he loved. He put the fabric on her chest for those who walk by to see.

Tamlen attempted to fight back the tears of knowing he’d never be able to express his love for Jay nor would she ever see him again. She probably wouldn’t even know how she got outside in the first place…

But, maybe she would… his hand went right to his other more personal pouch he kept on his right side. It contained his never-used journal, a small and very damaged quill and the smallest of ink bottles. He always kept it on him just in case he felt he needed to write something down, and now was one of those times.

He settled down in a corner close to Jaylen so he could monitor her for as long as he could without being seen by more monsters. He still had his bow with him in case he needed to use it one last time.

He brushed away a tear with his bloodied hand as he felt himself get colder and colder as his life drained from his body. A small _pop_ could be heard as he tugged off the cork to the small bottle and dipped his quill in, beginning to write his first and final entry.

_Jaylen;_

_if you happen across this, I am gone. I only wish it weren’t so, and… and that I had listened to you. My curiosity got the better of me and it cost me my life, and maybe even yours._

_I have an entire story to tell you of how I got you out of the cave, but I’ll keep things short as I don’t have much life left in me. I woke up first between us and managed to get you outside; I only hope that someone else found you and was able to keep you safe, like I had requested._

_Remember how I said I wasn’t a good fighter? I was right. I’ve sustained too many wounds to keep going and take you back to camp and for that, I’m sorry._

_Just know this, Jay. You’ll always be my friend and know that I value you most in this world; I love you with all my heart. I only hope that you feel the same way._

_Thank you for letting me live a life of happiness. Goodbye._

Tamlen finished and couldn’t help but release the flood of tears as he felt his legs and fingertips go numb from bloodloss. He set his journal down onto his lap and gave one last glance to Jay before he closed his eyes and let his breathing slow. He leaned back and got as comfortable as he could as his life drained from his body.

One final tear dripped down his cheek, making its way to his chin and then landing softly onto his leather armour, but by then, Tamlen… was already gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments, and bookmarks are all very much appreciated if you liked this story, as is the usual.


End file.
